Author: jeff

(For expedience sake- The SandHill Band of Lenape and Cherokee Indians (NY, NJ, PA) will be referred to as SandHill)

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This article is part two of the series on the movie Diligence, which has been shown at Independent Film festivals in Canada and the United States.  It is a documentary about SandHill Council member Ms. Carrie Jones’s legal battle to recover her family’s burial ground, which a corporation fraudulently purchased.

Recently, Ms. Carrie Jones was awarded the Tubman Award for her victorious quest for justice in the return of her family’s burial ground through the court system at this year’s Hip Hop Film Fest held in New Jersey.

She is not a lawyer.  However, she took on the Corporation, representing herself and her family.  

She did her own due diligence, investigating the relevant laws and cases, and entered the Courtroom well-prepared to present her rock-solid case against the Corporation.  

The Corporation had already cut down trees, removed some of the graves of her family members, and buried other people in the burial ground.  Those bodies, though not indigenous, will be left in peace and not disturbed..  

Recording her journey was Brooklyn Demme (TrueHeart), who is the son of Jonathan Demme, producer of The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia.  Brooklyn recorded the Courtroom drama where her diligence in gathering all the legal knowledge she needed was presented calmly and professionally.

I have been struggling to find the words to describe Ms. Jones, her determination, and her story to have her family’s burial ground returned to them.  She is one of the most brilliant people that I have had the honor to meet in recent years.  She is a humble person, as she does not seek glory, fame, or even her five minutes in the sun.  She…

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Tuesday, Oct. 28

Essex County Invitational, Semifinal Round

Shabazz 1, East Orange 0 – Box Score

Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament, Semifinal Round

St. Joseph (Met.) 7, East Brunswick 2 – Box Score

Monroe 1, Old Bridge 0 – Box Score

Hudson County Tournament, Final round

St. Peter’s Prep 2, Harrison 0 – Box Score

Regular Season

BCSL

Riverside 1, Maple Shade 0 – Box Score

Woodbury 4, Pemberton 0 – Box Score

Moorestown Friends 3, Triton 2 – Box Score

South Plainfield 1, Bordentown 0 – Box Score

BIG NORTH

West Milford 3, Wayne Hills 1 – Box Score

Bergen Catholic 4, Passaic 3 – Box Score

Dwight-Morrow 7, Paterson Eastside 2 – Box Score

Passaic Tech 1, Clifton 1 – Box Score

Old Tappan 1, St. Joseph (Mont.) 0 – Box Score

Cliffside Park 1, Bergen Tech 0 – Box Score

Lakeland 6, Passaic Valley 4 – Box Score

DePaul 4, Ramsey 2 – Box Score

Demarest 1, Ridgefield Park 0 – Box Score

Ridgewood 2, Pascack Valley 0 – Box Score

Tenafly 7, Teaneck 0 – Box Score

Indian Hills 3, Dumont 2 – Box Score

Bergenfield 4, Paramus Catholic 0 – Box Score

Mahwah 4, Pascack Hills 0 – Box Score

Westwood 1, River Dell 0 – Box Score

Don Bosco Prep 4, Paramus 0 – Box Score

Ramapo 4, Newark Academy 0 – Box Score

CAPE-ATLANTIC

Oakcrest 1, Camden Catholic 0 – Box Score

Lenape 2, Hammonton 0 – Box Score

COLONIAL

Paul VI 1, Sterling 0 – Box Score

Woodbury 4, Pemberton 0 – Box Score

Lindenwold 1, Clearview 0 – Box Score

Schalick 2,…

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In this period of government and fiscal uncertainty, directors of Oklahoma Tribal Head Start programs were in Washington, D.C. last week to advocate on the Hill for continued funding. Among those in attendance were Jayme Trevino, Director of the Kickapoo Tribe’s Head Start program in McLoud, and Monica Fisher, Director of the Delaware Tribe of Indians’ Lenape Early Learning Center Head Start in Bartlesville. Both programs serve 60 children (and their families). In total, Tribal Head Start programs serve close to 3,000 children in Oklahoma. Only Arizona has a higher number of children enrolled in Tribal Head Starts.

Fisher: “What’s great about the Early Head Start and Head Start programs is we create partnerships with our families in our communities, and so we take a whole child and whole family approach to serving the family and ensuring that we’re setting families up for success from the very beginning.”

Trevino: “We are, I like to say, the baseline, the foundation. Our teachers are specialized in the areas that they teach — they come in with bachelor degrees. We want to be recognized as a professional institute. And the dollars really help…they are very much worth the investment.”

For FY 2026, the White House budget request maintains funding for Head Start at its FY 2025 level of $12.272 billion. The House and Senate appropriations bills also propose funding at or close to this amount:

1. White House Request: Proposes to keep Head Start funding at the same level as FY 2025.
2. House Proposal: Also includes level funding for Head Start at $12.272 billion.
3. Senate Proposal: Includes an increase of $85 million, bringing the proposed total to $12.36 billion.

The HHS Budget proposal says this about the Head Start program:

“The Head Start Program provides grants to local public and private non-profit and for-profit agencies. The grants will provide early learning and…

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